Brown Printing Company Selects Remote Director for Monitor Proofing in the Pressroom

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Press release from the issuing company

New York, NY; July 12, 2005 – Brown Printing Company, an industry leader in web offset printing, is bringing monitor proofing press-side and installing Integrated Color Solutions’ Remote Director. Brown Printing decided to install the new technology as a means to remain at the forefront of the industry and to offer the company’s clients every advantage possible.
“We believe in this technology and it has great potential to benefit our industry,” says Lee Edberg, Central PreMedia B.Direct Manager for Brown Printing, which is headquartered in Waseca, Minn., and also has facilities in East Greenville, Penn., and Woodstock, Ill.
Brown Printing will use the award-winning Remote Director to eliminate hard copy proofing in the pressroom. Instead, press operators will be matching their press to Remote Director. Once the equipment is installed, there will be dual 23” color monitors and a Mac G5 tied in directly to the press console. ICS is working to install the new system now and Edberg says they plan to be up and running on a few presses by the end of July.
“Brown Printing is a technology leader, and we are proud that ICS, with distribution partner Enovation Graphic Systems, has been selected to bring monitor proofing to their pressrooms,” says John Sweeney, vice president for sales and marketing for ICS. “We are confident that with Remote Director’s advanced pressroom navigation tools and speed, we will exceed Brown Printing’s expectations.”
“Going press side is a new concept, so we worked with ICS in order to make the navigation easier, faster and cleaner,” explains Edberg. “We can’t just install a new G5 and tell the press operators to use it, without touching the screen or getting ink on the keyboard. ICS responded quickly with changes, and that was very impressive to us. Their support and responsiveness as well as their willingness to adapt made us confident in our decision to implement their technology.”
Edberg said that many people at Brown Printing were involved in the research and decision to install Remote Director, including pressroom managers and operators, who played an integral part. “They’ve reinforced the concept of this technology and are confident they’ll be able to match the monitor proofs,” he adds.
Brown Printing started running its presses at the Minnesota location in 1949 and has since grown from a small print shop to three facilities that print more than 600 weekly, bi-weekly and monthly business-to-business and special interest consumer publications, and catalogs. With more than 2,600 employees, Brown Printing specializes in print runs ranging from 25,000 to more than 1.4 million and all are printed, stitched or bound on the company’s 22 web offset presses, 25 saddle stitichers, 16 perfect binders and 12 polywrappers.
“The opportunity to eliminate paper proofs at press will streamline our manufacturing process,” adds Edberg. “Remote Director is the most advanced monitor proofing system to date, and we look forward to our partnership with ICS and Enovation.”
As the printing industry continues to adopt new tools and technologies, users are currently witnessing the biggest changes in the proofing arena. “With the number of proofing devices available on the market, maintaining consistency is a challenge for printers,” explains Edberg. “Everybody wants a ‘run to the numbers’ type of solution and Remote Director is the way to get there. It gets everyone on the same page and using the same standards.
“We’re looking forward to our new capabilities and we’re a believer in this technology,” he says. “We want to help it progress and we’re excited.”